Senators strip $1.5 billion from House plan for school reform, but they’re open for negotiating

By Andrea Zelinksi, Austin Bureau

August 11, 2017Updated: August 11, 2017 9:20pm

Photo: Stephen Spillman /Stephen Spillman

State Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, speaks with state Rep. Dan Huberty on the House floor at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday. Both are chairs of their respective education committees.

State Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, speaks with state Rep. Dan...

AUSTIN — A band of state senators voted to strip $1.5 billion from the leading school finance bill Friday, laying waste to a plan by the Texas House that would boost state allocations per student and provide additional funds for children with special needs.

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The action by the Senate Education Committee Friday marks the second time the state Legislature’s two chambers have wrestled over whether and how to alter the state’s school funding formula in light of a court ruling last summer that found Texas’ public school funding system was constitutional but in need of legislative repair.

The Senate’s Education Committee chairman said Friday he’s willing to negotiate with the House to come up with a plan “we can live with” during the final days of the special legislative session.

“Our big goal is to redo the whole school finance, but there are certain situations that aren’t going to be sustainable in the next two years,” said Chairman Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood. “We’ll work with (the House) on some of those things we can add that are more modest in keeping the overall price tag down.”

State Rep. Dan Huberty, Taylor’s counterpart on the House committee, refused to say what parts of his school finance bill are non-negotiable, but said he plans to work with the senator over the next few days in hopes they can find agreement.

“We want $1.8 billion,” said the Republican from Humble. “They obviously don’t have that in the bill, so I look forward to sitting down and talking with him. We’ve got time to get things done. I’m optimistic.”

Today's passed bills

The stakes are high for lawmakers to pass a bill that could change how the state funds education for 5.3 million children in public schools, but the Legislature will need a Herculean effort to pass a bill both the House and Senate can get behind by the time the special session ends Wednesday.

Tasked by Gov. Greg Abbott in mid-July to take up the issue in the special session, the House proposed a $1.8 billion rehab of the state formula, adding about $1 billion to boost per-pupil costs to $5,350 from the current $5,140, which would remain unchanged in the Senate version.

The House’s plan also would spend more money on bilingual children and students with disabilities, extend funding for career and technical education through eighth grade and update how the state funds school transportation.

The House bill also sets aside money for school districts now receiving stipends under a state program known as Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction, which is set to expire Sept. 1. Several small school districts may have to shut down without a financial cushion to soften the landing from the end of the ASATR program.

On Friday, however, the Senate committee approved a plan that would add $311 million to the current system, with the extra funds earmarked mostly for small school districts, capital projects for charter and traditional schools and for a hardship grant program for schools affected by the conclusion of ASATR.

Taylor said his plan is to take the Senate’s version of House Bill 21 to a vote of the full Senate today, then negotiate a deal with the House in a conference committee. He said he expects to add to the bill in negotiations, but stressed the Legislature needs to “live within our means” and criticized the House version as too expensive.

“It’s unfortunate that it was put out there, the $1.8 billion, because that was never really money that we had available,” Taylor told the committee, adding, “It sets this false expectation.”

Asked whether the Senate could support the House’s increase to the basic allotment, Taylor said, “Obviously, a billion dollars is not within the price range of what we can do.”

How to pay for the Legislature’s education plans has caused consternation in both chambers. Many lawmakers are reticent to touch the state’s savings account, known as the Economic Stabilization Fund. Any other spending would likely require lawmakers to put off state-required payments that come due late in the biennium, then figure out in the 2019 legislative session where to find the money to pay the bills.

The Senate would prefer not to change how the state approaches school funding this year and instead wants to create a commission to study large-scale changes to present to the Legislature in 2019. Such a commission would consist mostly of people appointed by the governor and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, neither of whom were eager during the regular session to explore refinements to the state’s school funding formula.

The House is nonplussed by the idea of a commission. Huberty, who has sat on five such study committees, said the Legislature already knows what changes need to be made to improve the formula.

Both Taylor and Huberty began the week saying they would not pass the other’s bill to address school finance reform. Those threats softened as the week wore on and talk of negotiations came into play.

The House and Senate had gone to blows over school finance earlier this year in a situation that mirrors the tensions during the 30-day legislative session. During the regular legislative session, the House passed a similar school finance bill over to the Senate, but the upper chamber changed the bill, pulling out much of the House’s adjustments to the school funding formula.

The Senate kept money for school districts phasing out of ASATR and added a school voucher plan that would allow parents to send their children with disabilities to private school with taxpayer dollars.

Both sides refused to budge and the bill died.

The state’s share of school funding has slipped in recent years, dropping from 46 percent in 2012 to 38 percent projected in 2019, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities, forcing local taxpayers to make up the difference.

School board members and superintendents banded together this week to urge the Senate to pass the House’s version of the bill, saying it’s the only chance this year to meaningfully affect Texas public school children.

Nearly 1,500 top district leaders and board members signed a letter telling the Senate the original proposal “provides immediate help to schools across Texas that have been coping with the state’s diminishing role in funding education.”